Historic new California law grants farm workers OT pay

The following if from Arturo S. Rodriguez, President of the United Farm Workers of America:

SACRAMENTO (Sept. 13, 2016) — Si Se Pudo!!! On Monday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1066, our overtime for farm workers bill into law. I want to thank each and every one of you for the support that you gave us in fighting for this crucial legislation creating a historic victory ensuring that farm workers will receive overtime after 8 hours of work.

For 78 years, a Jim Crow-era law discriminated against farm workers by denying us the same overtime rights that other workers benefit from. Governor Brown corrected a historic wrong in California, the largest agricultural state in the nation, setting an example for other states to follow. This is the first time in the United States that farm workers will be able to get the same overtime after 8 hours as other workers here in the United States.

A lot of you helped participate in writing letters, emails, donating to buses so farm workers could lobby legislators directly in Sacramento as well as joining us in participating in delegations, marches and all types of different activities to ensure that everybody understood the importance of passing this legislation. I want to express my deepest appreciation for your help.

I also want to extend a huge thanks to the author of AB1066 Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who worked extremely hard to make this law happen, as well as all those legislators who supported us in this work. I want to give a special shout out to the Senate President Kevin de Leon and the Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for taking the leadership within their respective houses to get the necessary votes so that we could put AB1066 on the Governor’s desk.

I wanted to share some of the news clips as well as video messages from myself and farm workers. We will continue posting news clips here.